A bit more substantive news

Hello my brethren.

I figured I'd write a bit more substantive material about my life lately.

London is fantastic. It never gets too cold here -- just about down to freezing but no colder. This winter was supposed to be one of the coldest in years, but it has turned out so far to have been the mildest since 1990. I normally get by with my TPC, a sweater (here, called a "jumper") and my leather jacket. Oh yeah, and a scarf. Now I understand why you have to wear that crap -- makes a huge difference.

My job search kind of took a pause over Christmas. I kept collecting data on firms, but I didn't send anything out, just in case they wanted to take it easy or if they were on vacation -- or, holiday in EE. English stands for "English English". That is, as opposed to ME, or "'Murican English", the native language of 'Murica, also known as the Central North American Republic, or the United States of America (as opposed to the United States of Mexico).

Anyway, now I have a few job leads, so we'll see if something happens shortly.

I have been walking in London quite a bit, and I'm getting to know some parts of it. There is no grid, and very little rhyme or reason to it. That's kind of nice, because there are always new and interesting places to discover, each with their own local flavor.

There are a lot of pubs here. Most English pubs have dark wood all over, and usually a dark red or blue carpet with designs in it, stained from -- on average -- about ten or twelve years of beer spills, cigarette ash, and street muck. During the day, they all seem to smell of last night's cigarette smoke, and at night, of that particular night's cigarette smoke.

There are a lot of United Statians all over London. As irony would have it, in my neighborhood, there is the large American School in London. This is a school for American people who want their kids to attend an American school. I know, I don't understand it either. Maybe they are afraid there's no pledge of alleigance to the Union Jack. I see a lot of USans on vacation in the more touristy locations, and there are a hell of a lot of them.

London is really picturesque, with the extremely quaint stone and brick facades reaching even into the dodgiest of neighborhoods. I've even seen nice stone entryways and quaint black iron fences along the facades of housing projects. There are typically white window frames with high ceilings. Along the handsome homes that line Regents Park, you can see chandeliers glowing through fluffy white drapes. I just know that Mr. Peanut is in there somewhere, getting home from a hard day at the peanut factory, taking off his top hat and putting down his cane, reading the Evening Standard through his peanut-eye-sized monocle.

I really like the subway -- the London Underground, or the "Tube". Tenacious D's decree that we will all travel in tubes has already been carried out here. It's really great. It's like going on an amusement park ride as a mandatory part of every single day! It's expensive though. A single one-way ride will cost you £2.30, which is about $4.30 at the current exchange rate (the dollar currently gets you 53p, and yes, Mark, I do thoroughly enjoy the fact identifying the prices of items by saying "p"). When I was in New York in July, a one-way subway ride was $2.00. There are six zones for the tube, and the rates go up as you travel through more zones. Fortunately, we live in Zone 2, and all the stations I go to are in Zones 1 and 2. A one-week unlimited pass for Zones 1 and 2 is £21.40 -- more than $40.

Gosh, that's kind of depressing!

In any case, life is great here. We went to Bath a few weeks ago, where there are some Roman ruins. There is a natural spring from which very hot water flows. Apparently, the pre-Roman inhabitants had a shrine there to a god named Sul. So the Romans named the place Sulis Minerva and established a colony there. Around 400 A.D., when the Romans abandoned England altogether, they likewise abandoned their settlement at what is today Bath. There are not many remains from the Roman period anymore. It reminds me of that Sting song "All This Time": "They lived and they died; they prayed to their gods, but the stone gods did not make a sound. Then their empire crumbled, and all that was left were the stones the workmen found."

Well, I'd better leave it at that for now. I hope all of you are well, and I'll hopefully be getting a telephone call out there soon.

Thinking of you guys, and hoping for some improvement in this job situation so we can start making crazy plans again!

All the best,

Juan

P.S. Gregg was correct. That was a Magnum P.I. episode. However, you and I used to have conversations in my car -- named "Kitt" -- over a videophone, whilst you rode around in a semi-truck computer laboratory with Rachel, and later, Bonnie. Man, it used to get so hot when I would wear my leather jacket right in the middle of the summer. I don't know what I was thinking!